Arctic wolves: Winter Expedition to Ellesmere Island
- Patrick Meier
- Jul 24
- 23 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
Discover fascinating background information and behind-the-scene highlights of my recent winter expedition to Ellesmere Island in search of Arctic wolves and other wildlife of the Canadian High Arctic.
April 2026 - This second attempt was a full success. Flight arrangements, transfers, excess baggage with indispensable expedition- and photographic equipment, buffer stopovers, and eventually the mission-critical charter flights to and from Eureka Weather Station: everything fell into place perfectly. No accidents or major damage in the field, no serious temperature-related injuries. We all returned home safely. After 19 days in the High-Arctic, I am privileged to share a portfolio of incredibly rare and stunning impressions.
My profound thanks go out to our expedition leaders from Ausuittuq Adventures in Grise Fiord. Terry Noah, Nolan Kiguktak, along with Silas Pijamini and Aberham Kakkee, and their entire support team who helped to set up our base camp.
The Ausuittuq Adventures Team collecting additional supplies to set up base camp
What were the most significant differences this time?
For the 2023 expedition we headed to Canada at the end of February. This meant that also Quebec and southern Nunavut were still in deep winter. Heavy snowfalls in Montreal and Ottawa, as well as very low temperatures from Iqaluit onwards had delayed our travel plans by a full week before we even reached Grise Fiord. There simply wasn’t enough field time left to reach Eureka Sound. In March 2023, we decided to cross the mountains and glaciers north of Grise Fiord and explore the area up to Vendom Fiord south-east of Eureka.
When I first discussed a new attempt with Ben Cranke sometime in autumn 2023, we both agreed on two major factors:
A minimum of two weeks would be required in the field, in confirmed wolf territory.
We would arrange private charter flights between Resolute Bay and Eureka Weather Station to avoid the 1’100km snowmobile ride from Grise Fiord to Eureka and back.
As our calendars for 2024 and 2025 were already full, we started planning for late March to early April 2026. Somewhat milder conditions could be expected for Quebec and the Middle-Arctic, but central and northern Ellesmere Island, and Axel Heiberg Island would still be in the firm grip of High-Arctic winter. Essential for any photographs reflecting these particularly harsh conditions.
In multiple late-night chats, Terry and I began to carve out a plan that could be turned into reality. He had already obtained more powerful snow mobiles and would form a team to tackle two round trips of 1’100km each between Grise Fiord and Eureka. Crossing mountains, glaciers, and hundreds of kilometres of sea ice each time, to transport tents, bedrolls, generators, cooking equipment, kerosene heaters, fuel, gas and spare parts for the big ski-doo snow mobiles, and of course our food.
I then reached out to Kenn Borek Air regarding options for charter flights. Not too easy. But our high-level plans and budget were in place. Malini had already decided that she would not join this expedition. But from earlier discussions Ben and I knew that Jess Jones and Katha Dittombée might be interested though. They had both been to Ellesmere in 2023 and had faced similar challenges, returning with meagre results.
By February 2026 everything was confirmed. Neither my long-haul flights to Canada nor the service from Ottawa via Iqaluit and Arctic Bay to Resolute Bay had undergone any major schedule changes. Based on the 2023 expedition I had optimised my packing list. It was shorter now, with fewer redundancies for base- and mid-layers, and almost no spare hand- and foot-warmers. Downsizing weight and volume would reduce the risk of any bags being left stranded in Iqaluit.
On March 30th I boarded my flight to Johannesburg. 29 hours later, I sat over a beer in the Hilton Garden Inn’s lobby at Ottawa Airport. My fellow participants and I were slightly nervous as we headed to the airport for an early check-in the next morning. No problems! A further 11hrs travel time and we disembarked in Resolute Bay. Punctual, all bags on site. The afternoon sun stood over the horizon as I collected my room key at South Camp Inn. My weather app read “Feels like -42°C.”.
South Camp Inn, Resolute Bay Searching for Arctic foxes near Resolute Bay
Three buffer nights in Resolute Bay allowed us to rent a vehicle and head out to search for Arctic foxes
Following the 2023 experience this was quite incredible. Now it was time to enjoy our three buffer days here. We decided to rent a vehicle and drive towards the airfield searching for Arctic foxes. We found five individuals at three different places. A most welcome addition to the portfolio simultaneously provided a great opportunity to exercise my cold-weather photography.
Resolute Bay to Eureka Weather Station
I had arranged with Terry and Kenn Borek Air to load an extra 220l gas drum. Just some reserves for the ski-doos. Kenn Borek Air’s station manager confirmed the evening before our charter flight, and we were asked to be ready at their hangar around 08:00h.
Private light aircraft charter flights are a relatively regular part of my expeditions. Arranging this flight was different. The DeHavilland DHC-6 Twin Otter would be very spacious for four passengers, but with a flight time of 2:45h to 3:00h per segment and no sensible option of refuelling at Eureka Weather Station, the crew had to place three 220l fuel drums in the cabin. After adding Terry’s gas drum there was not much space left. It worked out well, though, and certainly added relevance to the “No Smoking” signs!
Resolute Bay to Eureka Weather Station
What followed was a most impressive winter flight across Canada’s eastern High-Arctic Archipelago. From Cornwallis to Devon Island, and on to Axel Heiberg along Eureka Sound, Ellesmere to our right. Vast expanses of nameless peaks and glaciers, the Arctic ocean resting under layers of ice and snow. How amazing to know that this extreme habitat is home to a most fascinating combination of wildlife species!
After a smooth landing the Twin Otter came to a stop. Two Inuit tightly wrapped up in their parkas sat on the ski-doos, both trailing some modern form of kammutiq. Terry and Silas greeted us and helped to unload the gas drum and our bags. The Kenn Borek crew set up their pump and started refuelling the aircraft from the other drums we had brought along. Eureka was considerably colder than Resolute Bay. The adventure could begin!
The currently published four galleries feature their own descriptions of the experiences their images share. Therefore allow me to dive a bit deeper into specific topics.
Life in camp
Everything man does up here is difficult. And far more so in winter than during the few mosquito-infested weeks of Polar desert summer. Throughout our expedition, the cold remained unforgiving. Our generators broke down, all four of them. Ski-doos were damaged, and the extensive set of spare parts on site was not sufficient for a full state of repair. Never mind. In the High-Arctic, a full state of repair is the exception. Engine block heaters would work to about -38° C. But temperatures dropped well below that. Melting snow to make enough water for hot drinks and for our dehydrated food packs would be a continuous daily effort. And keeping our tiny qammutik huts with our sleeping bags from nose-diving into extreme cold required careful handling of the little heating system Terry and his team had devised. The heaters worked only when connected to electricity and of course at sufficient fuel levels. All cables were frozen stiff, and the slightest touch would disconnect a heater. Within minutes, a cosy 5° C. would drop to -30° C.
The spirit of our winter camping expedition team was amazing to observe. Tackle challenge after challenge. Fix problem after problem. Fix enough problems and you get to live! With all generators gone, Terry was quick to wire an inverter to one of the quad bikes on site and converted it to be our new and much more robust generator. I don’t even want to think about the consequences of not having at least a spark of electricity in camp. There would be very little heat, no communication, and no battery charging. An Eskimo fix, he called it. The task at hand may be complicated but it must be done swiftly with pragmatic ingenuity and the use of any material at hand. A length of rope would be used to temporarily stabilise the broken ski runners on Terry’s snow mobile. When an all-important zip for the access flap of our mess tent gave in, an improvised outer flap was stitched to the tent. Contact lenses, medication, and sanitary wet-wipes had to be kept at body temperature. As had any battery hoping to be of use at some point. And these are just some examples of winter camping challenges in the High-Arctic.
Expedition base camp on Slidre Fiord Kerosene stoves serve as engine block heaters Snow to water: a continuous process in camp The cold creeping in through the tent walls Gas and fuel stash Cosy conditions :-) Warming up for a moment Midnight tea is ready! L. David Mech's Cabin
Life in camp, and in the field searching for Arctic wildlife
What defines the High-Arctic?
Scientific publications from recent years provide varying information according to research subjects. I find the February 2026 definition by the Arctic Centre of the University of Lapland, Rovaniemi FI, and the maps published by the Alaska Geobotany Center of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks US to provide the most accessible and detailed information.
The Arctic and Subarctic are divided into four zones and five bioclimatic subzones. Each subzone is determined by the sum of the average monthly temperature above 0° C., i.e. the Summer Warmth Index (SWI). Thus, the SWI is a central metric describing the total duration and warmth of the summer season per subzone. As a rule, the longer and warmer a summer season is, the more vegetation sustaining any life on land can grow.
© Arctic Portal
Link: Arctic Portal Maps
High-Arctic: subzones A, B
The Polar desert. These are the northernmost, coldest and driest subzones. The annual growing season in the High-Arctic lasts between 2 to 3 months. “Growing”, however, is limited to lichen, mosses, and a very rare few flowering plants and grasses. The High-Arctic is a landscape of snow, ice and rock for most of the year.
SWI subzone A: < 6.0° C. – Example: northern Greenland, Arctic Ocean ice margins
SWI subzone B: 6.0° to 9.0° C. – Example: Canadian High-Arctic, Northern Svalbard
Middle-Arctic: subzone C
This is the middle ground between the milder Low-Arctic zones, and the High-Arctic. Although the annual growing season does not exceed 3 months, spring and autumn is a bit milder, allowing for a denser and more diverse plant cover.
SWI subzone C: 9.0° to 12.0° C. – Example: Northern Alaska, Central Nunavut
Low-Arctic and Subarctic boundary: subzone D
These southern expanses of the tundra make up the most biologically active and productive subzones. With an annual growing season of 3 to 4 months, the tundra consists of continuous vegetation cover and in some places includes shrubs growing to almost half a meter.
SWI subzone D: 12.0° to 20.0° C. – Example: Northern Scandinavia, Siberian Tundra
Subarctic: subzone E
South of the Low-Arctic begins the Subarctic region which contains the northern limit of forests (northern treeline). Flying from Ottawa to Iqaluit on a clear day, one can observe the slowly progressing transition from the Boreal to the Subarctic, and on to the Low-Arctic zones. The Low-Arctic starts at 58° N., still over Québec. The exact area where the last trees grow can be seen along the banks of the Leaf River (Rivière aux Feuilles). No closed patches of forest occur north across Ungava Peninsula and towards Hudson Strait and no trees grow on Baffin Island.
SWI subzone E: > 20.0° C. – Example: Southern Yamal (Russia), Labrador (Canada)
The High-Arctic with its extreme winter conditions and long polar nights then marks the very limits of the Latitudinal Diversity Gradient (LDG) – the global ecological pattern describing the gradual reduction of species diversity from the equator towards the poles. While there are some notable exceptions to the LDG for certain pelagic bird species and marine mammals in subzones C to E, it is clear that food and nutrient availability in the Polar desert, subzones A and B is so restricted, that no more than 8 land mammal and 2 or 3 bird species manage to carve out a permanent existence on Ellesmere Island.
The fate of the ringed seal
Witnessing the wolf pack hunting and killing an Arctic ringed seal with pup during the evening hours of April 9th made me think that I should compile some information about this still common, but very special species. A few days later, when the wolves had completely consumed the two animals and left the kill site, we went in to investigate. Our Inuit expedition leader, Terry Noah, identified the following scenario the way we observed it: a small group of wolves had found and broken through the snow cover of the seal’s lair. They dragged the pup about 10m away from the lair. As the mother got onto the ice from her separate breathing hole attempting to get the pup back, most of the pack was ready to attack her.
Terry Noah inspecting the Arctic ringed seal's lair
Arctic ringed seals (Pusa hispida hispida) are a fascinating species. Highly ice-adapted, with an average lifespan of 20 - 28 years (but maximum of up to 45 years) and growing to a weight of 70kg and a body length of 150cm, they range among the smallest pinnipeds. Only the Galápagos fur seal (Arctocephalus galapagoensis), and the Baikal seal (Pusa sibirica) are smaller.
Arctic ringed seals are circumpolar. They occur throughout the Arctic Basin and in adjacent seas further south, such as Labrador and Bering. Populations are found in the Seas of Okhotsk and Japan as well as in the Baltic Sea and the North Atlantic. A notable speciality: isolated freshwater populations are present in south-eastern Finnland’s Lake Saimaa, and across the border in Russia’s Lake Lagoda, but a short distance from the gates of St. Petersburg.
© COSEWIC / Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada Link: 2019 Assessment and Status Report
The Arctic ringed seal’s habitat requirements follow the annual cryogenic cycle. Adults establish territories around September to October during freeze-up. Canada’s High-Arctic Archipelago offers plenty of breeding habitat. Females prefer stable ice found in fiords, or landfast ice over relatively shallow waters (< 150m). At the time of our expedition in early April 2026, the sea ice cover on Slidre Fiord and Eureka Sound measured about 1.8m – 2.0m. Arctic ringed seals have no problem to make and maintain one or more breathing holes using their claws and teeth. Towards spring, they also carve out their lairs in snowdrifts over a breathing hole.
Arctic ringed seals give birth to one pup between March and April, following a gestation of 10 to 11 months. (Thus, the mating cycle begins shortly after females have given birth.) Unique among seals: Arctic ringed seal pups are born hidden from view in a snow-covered lair. They take up diving lessons with their mothers shortly after birth. The youngsters will be weaned within 6 to 8 weeks after birth, nearly quadrupling their weight form ca. 4.5kg to about 20kg within this period.
Illustration of a ringed seal lair
Arctic ringed seals prey on a limited number of aquatic species such as Arctic cod and a few species of small crustaceans. While foraging, they may dive to depths of 45m.
Every year from around mid-May to mid-June, ringed seals undergo their energetically demanding moult when they must shed their old fur and grow a new coat. Coming out of winter, this process requires increased energy to maintain warm skin temperatures and regenerate tissue and fur. During moult, the animals spend most of their time resting and fasting on sea ice and will only enter the surrounding waters to escape land predators, or to forage for prey.
From a conservation point of view, I find it interesting that little recent research data and information seem to be available on this subspecies. The currently published IUCN Red List assessment dates to 2014 (2016 for Pusa hispida). Back then, the global number of mature individuals was estimated at 1.45 million, but no population trend has been confirmed until now. While the situation may still be stable in the High-Arctic, I should expect conditions differ further south. Likely, with the Arctic seal’s life cycle depending on sea ice habitat, the climate change related reduction of sea ice and snow cover in combination with increased shipping activities across its range will become problematic rather sooner than later.
As ringed seals are an important prey species for Polar bears (Ursus maritimus), we don’t have to speculate about any knock-on effect this will cause.
The Arctic fox
After observing two Arctic foxes at a muskox carcass in 2023, I was hoping for more encounters during the April 2026 expedition. Especially in their pristine white winter coat these animals are simply gorgeous. And anyway, foxes are a photographic quest for me. -
You know, dog hardware running on cat firmware!
Comfy in the cold: the little arctic fox is perfectly adapted to the High-Arctic climate
Our base camp on eastern Slidre Fiord was visited a few times by an Arctic fox. However, this individual appeared uneasily restless and never stayed around for long. Likely because it sensed the recent and dangerous presence of wolves. But my hopes for good observations had already come true at the beginning of this expedition in Resolute Bay. On the outskirts of the dwelling towards the airport, we got to spend a bit of quality time with three Arctic foxes. The photographic results are adorable!
The Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus) is the second largest among the 12 species of true foxes in the biological genus Vulpes. Only the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) can grow considerably larger and heavier. Sympatric populations occur in a narrow transitional zone across the Low-Arctic tundra, where Arctic foxes can become victims of predation by red foxes. But even as the red fox’s range expands north driven by climate change, the circumpolar Middle- and High-Arctic remain the Arctic fox’s domain. And impressively so. –
Looking at the distribution range of Arctic foxes, one can assume that close neighbours such the northern Greenlandic population and the one on Ellesmere Island would communicate during winter. Through this bridge, Arctic foxes from Greenland would obtain and provide genetic exchange with populations further west and to the south of Ellesmere Island. Similarly, that the Alaskan population may be genetically linked with the population of the Russian Far-East. But it goes further than this. My dear friends Dres. Urs and Christine Breitenmoser from Bern shared the information that rabies research confirms a circumpolar genetic connection of all Arctic fox populations. As Audrey Simon et al. describes in a publication dated June 2019 on Polar Research, Arctic foxes are the primary reservoir and vector of the Arctic rabies virus strain. Thorill Mørk et al. confirms with a research report published in October 2011 in the Journal of Wildlife Diseases (access via ResearchGate that rabies viruses found in Arctic foxes from coastal North America, Greenland, and Russia share a common ancestry. This indicates an ancient continuous contact among Arctic fox populations throughout the entire Polar basin.
© Arctic Portal
Link: Arctic Portal Maps
But how is this possible considering seasonal dispersal limitations and the challenges of winter climate and food availability between distant areas?
The amazing journey of a young female Arctic fox between 2017 and 2019
On 26 April 1885 at 85°N, during his North Pole expedition, Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen noted: “I was not a little surprised yesterday morning when I suddenly saw the track of an animal in the snow. It was that of an Arctic fox. The trail was quite fresh. – What in the world was that fox doing up here out on the wild sea?”
Arctic fox dispersal from Svalbard to Canada: one female’s long run across sea ice
Eva Fuglei1 & Arnaud Tarroux2
1Norwegian Polar Institute
2Department of Arctic Ecology, Norwegian Institute for Nature Research
While Arctic foxes have long been admired for their exceptional endurance and mobility in Polar desert environments, the first scientific answers to their excursions across frozen oceans were provided by research conducted between 1968 and 1987. It became evident that driven by seasonally lower prey availability on land, Arctic foxes would follow Polar bears across the sea ice. In some cases for more than 1’000km. Bears would hunt marine mammals, and foxes would benefit from leftovers.
With the continued miniaturisation of trackers for satellite telemetry, the possibility of fitting Arctic foxes with tracking collars became a reality later. On 29 July 2017, a female Arctic fox was captured with a special cage trap. After the usual quick field analysis for age estimate, general health, sex, size and weight, the animal received a collar fitted with a 115g satellite transmitter. While scientifically satisfying, the initial results between end of July 2017 and 2 March 2018 were not surprising. The Arctic fox constantly moved within an area of about 30km x 80km along the coastline of western Spitsbergen, the largest island of the Svalbard archipelago. A few days later, things changed. By 26 March 2018 the animal had reached the ice-covered sea on the north-eastern shores and simply continued to head north.
What followed must have been an adventure of epic proportions for this little fox. Within 76 days it crossed the Arctic ocean, found itself on the northernmost shores of Greenland, headed out north again (close to 85° N, to be precise), then continued in a south-westerly direction. By 6 June the Arctic fox headed out onto the still frozen Kane Basin west of northern Greenland. By 10 June it met solid ground on Ellesmere Island just south of Dobbin Bay. GPS data confirms that after following a narrow valley in an east-south-easterly direction, it reached Cañon Fiord, then followed Sawtooth Ridge and later Eureka Sound, and ended up at Eureka on 1 July 2018. Thus, after leaving Spitsbergen on 26 March 2018, the Arctic fox travelled over 3’507km across snow, ice, and rock all the way to western Ellesmere Island.
© Norwegian Polar Institute, Eva Fuglei, Arnaud Tarroux Link: Arctic fox dispersal from Svalbard to Canada: one female's long run across sea ice
To my knowledge this was the first documentation of long-distance dispersal by an Arctic fox confirmed by satellite telemetry.
Eventually the satellite tracker gave in. As there is very little or no human hunting pressure in Eureka, we may assume the Arctic fox got to live out its life. It might even have mated and become one of the little ecosystem engineers helping to turn the rolling hills and valleys around Eureka into a High-Arctic garden during the short summer months. Over time, areas around Arctic fox dens, some of them centuries old, become nutrient hot spots in the Polar desert. I include an interesting scientific publication by Tazarve Gharajehdaghipour et al., describing the role of Arctic foxes in this context:
The White-faced muskox (Ovibos moschatus wardi)
Although taxonomic classification places muskoxen in the Bovidae family, they form part of the Caprinae subfamily, sharing more evolutionary characteristics with goats, goat-antelopes, and sheep than with bison, buffalo, or wild cattle. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species estimates a muskox population of ca. 127’000 mature individuals, classified as Least Concern, with a decreasing population trend. In her article “Muskox status, recent variation, and uncertain future”, published by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in June 2019, Christine Cuyler et al. describes a more detailed view covering all 55 endemic and translocated populations across the USA, Canada, Greenland, Scandinavia, and Russia. I include the Global overview of populations below. Please see the full article for detailed information about individual populations, threats, and trends.
© The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Christine Cuyler et al.
Fully grown female White-faced muskoxen are up to 2m long and weigh close to 300kg. Dominant adult males in a herd stand at 2.5m body length and weigh up to 660kg. That’s a serious defensive line. Good luck trying to hunt a calf from the midst of a herd huddling up on hilltop! Yet, this is what Arctic wolves must accomplish to survive in the north. –
White-faced muskoxen are prehistoric survivors. They made it through the Late Pleistocene extinction alongside moose and caribou and have continuously shared Canada’s High-Arctic islands, and northern Greenland with Arctic wolves for about 10’000 to 12’000 years. The muskox’s broader ancestors migrated across the Bering Land Bridge to North America from about 200’000 to 90’000 years ago. Early muskoxen coexisted with now extinct species such as woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, American mastodon, as well as sabre- and scimitar-toothed predators, and dire wolves.
The Bering Land Bridge
How was it possible for muskoxen to perpetuate their existence, when it became the sad destiny of multiple spectacular land mammal species to vanish from our world?
A crucial aspect was that relatively small populations of muskoxen managed to survive Late Pleistocene Glacial Cycles and the Holocene transition in High-Arctic refugia. These refugia were dominated by Polar-desertic climate: some regions of northern Greenland and Canada’s High-Arctic Archipelago provided pockets of land in cold and dry conditions free from glacial ice or deep snow. No prehistoric human footprints crossed the land so far north. Thus, the sheer remoteness of their habitat protected surviving muskox populations from being pushed into extinction by anthropogenic overhunting.
The muskox’s metabolic flexibility was a critical prerequisite for this long-term survival pattern. While similar levels of metabolic flexibility were present in woolly mammoth, American mastodon, and woolly rhinoceros, the muskox could survive feeding on sparse grasses and marginally nutritive vegetation including lichens and mosses. The larger non-ruminants would have had to rely on open grassy steppes for survival. Areas that were accessible to prehistoric human hunters.
Surviving three major population contractions related to extreme climatic ecosystem changes ultimately came at a significant biological cost. The demographic isolation events resulted in a genetic bottleneck. It left white-faced muskoxen with the lowest genetic diversity of any mammal in existence. Today, contraction-related inbreeding depression and detrimental mutations appear to be limited in circumpolar wild-living and translocated populations, but white-faced muskoxen are particularly vulnerable to emerging pathogens driven by climate-change. The species’ immune system is genetically ill-equipped to counter intensifying threats from novel bacterial outbreaks and parasite range expansion.
9 March 2023, 11:03h - Portrait of a white-faced muskox, near Baumann Fiord
Like all Arctic wildlife species, white-faced muskoxen and barren-ground muskoxen have developed extensive thermoregulatory capabilities. Muskoxen drastically reduce energy requirements during winter and rely on fat reserves gained during summer. Their shaggy, coarse outer layer guard hair grows up to 60cm in length. It protects the animals from wind and weather and shields them from insects during summer. A shorter inner layer consisting of extremely fine hair called qiviut (ᕿᕕᐅᖅ or ᕿᕕᐅᑦ) in Inuktitut is grown towards winter and shed in spring.
Muskoxen, or Umingmak (ᐅᒥᖕᒪᒃ), as the species is called in Inuktitut, play a vital role in Inuit culture and are regularly hunted. Besides the meat, the animal’s hide, qiviut, horns, and certain bones are used to make clothing, bedding, tools, and decorative figurines. Like fine cashmere or vicuña, qiviut from farmed muskoxen has found its way into the luxury fashion market.
Based on my experience during the 2023 expedition, herds in southern Ellesmere were more wary of humans and took flight when they heard and smelled snowmobiles approach. In some cases, we observed herds running quite a distance until we were out of sight for them. The herds we encountered around Eureka were certainly careful. They either stood their ground or kept us at a distance but did not stampede off.
Extirpation and reintroduction in Alaska
By the mid to late 19th century, muskoxen had been wiped out completely in Alaska. The species that had lived across the Alaskan tundra was nowhere nearly as abundant as the American bison in the USA, where during the same period, and facilitated by the U.S. Army, the unfathomable mass slaughter of 60 to 70 million American bison unfolded. But relentless and unchecked hunting equally led to the muskox’s extirpation in Alaska.
In May 1930, the U.S. Congress funded the Bureau of Biological Survey (a predecessor organisation of today’s Fish and Wildlife Service) with $40’000 to acquire a herd of muskoxen for reintroduction in Alaska. The U.S. Government’s action was not guided by regret over the extirpation or a sudden interest in species conservation. Rather, the objectives were utilisation and domestication of muskoxen in suitable areas of Alaska.
Norwegian seal hunters were commissioned to capture a number of muskoxen in Greenland and transport them by ship to Norway. To round up and live-capture calves and yearlings, the sealers had to shoot the adult males in each herd they approached. Eventually, 19 females and 15 males made it to Norway by the end of August 1930. The animals were pushed into crates and transferred onto a steamer bound for New Jersey, where the muskoxen had to endure 33 days of quarantine before they were transferred to Seattle by train. From there it was a further 7-day steamer transfer to Seward on the Alaskan coast, about 120km south of Anchorage. But the odyssey wasn’t over yet. Four days later, by November 5th, 1930, all 34 animals captured in Greenland had been moved via Alaska Railroad to the Alaska Agricultural College (now University of Alaska) in Fairbanks. This was where the muskoxen would spend the next 5 years of their lives on a large pasture while scientists studied their behaviour, health, and adaptation to the new environment.
By the end of 1935 the experiment had apparently become too expensive to maintain. A few calves had been born, but managing fences to keep black bears out got increasingly difficult. It was decided to send 31 crates with muskoxen on their last journey and transfer them by boats and steamer down the Yukon River to St. Michael, and from there using a barge towed by a motorboat to Nunivak Island. More than 400km across the Bearing Sea.
This last segment nearly ended in disaster. The boat and barge were hit by heavy seas and gale-force winds, coming close to sinking the barge with its valuable cargo. However, using heavy hand pumps the men in charge of the transfer managed to keep the barge afloat until they reached Nunivak Island.
To the best of my knowledge, there is no publicly available photographic material documenting the actual reintroduction on Nunivak Island.
March 1966: muskoxen at Dahkit Cove, Nunivak Island, by Jerry L. Hout
Although yet another demographic and genetic bottleneck had been created, the muskoxen thrived exceptionally well on Nunivak Island. This population became the founding stock used to reintroduce muskoxen to mainland Alaska, the Seward Peninsula, and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. In her 2019 article, Christine Cuyler et al. estimates a total population of ca. 4’300 for Alaska. All descendants of the original 34 individuals captured in Greenland during summer 1930.
Atmospheric marvels and challenges of High-Arctic winter
I don’t remember who among our team asked Nolan whether Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) would be visible up here during dark winter. Nolan chuckled, lit a cigarette, and calmly answered in his ever friendly way: “We call’em the Southern Lights up here. The auroral oval forming around the geomagnetic poles ends near Pond Inlet”. – That would be about 800km south of Eureka.
Nolan Kiguktak
Understood. Northern Lights may be a topic for a future expedition further south. But the High-Arctic atmosphere held other marvels for us. And it wasn’t free of photographic challenges either. Already in 2023, I photographed the atmospheric phenomenon of low-angle Halos, in some cases with Sun Pillar, and Sun Dog (Parhelion). This time we were privileged to witness very strong effects. One particularly attractive observation of the midnight sun included a sunvex Parry arc.
The atmospheric conditions required for these effects to show are very interesting. For Parhelia to form the way we saw them, sunlight must refract through hexagonal, flat ice plates drifting low above the ground. These ice plates are sometimes called diamond dust. Three conditions must be fulfilled for diamond dust to form:
the ambient temperature near the ground must be extremely cold (during the 2026 expedition, night-time temperatures constantly stood between ca. -33° C. and -47° C.).
slightly less cold air able to transport minimal levels moisture must be pushed in at a higher level. As water molecules drift down into the lower-level air, they start forming microscopic hexagonal ice plates or prisms.
if the atmosphere remains absolutely wind still, these tiny ice crystals (diamond dust) continue to drift and settle horizontally in the cold air with their faces parallel to the ground.
When these conditions align, the rays of a low-standing sun (or moon during dark winter) enter on one side of a crystal, are refracted, and exit through another side. This creates a Halo and projects two bright, sometimes rainbow-coloured Sun Dogs exactly 22° to the left and right of the sun. Any hill or mountain may block the Parhelia from view, but with the sun standing low over a relatively open horizon they unfold an impressive presence.
Halo, Parhelion, Sun Pillar, and sunvex Parry arc: midnight sun over Eureka Sound
Only if the hexagonal plates or prisms remain strictly aligned and don’t roll may the rare phenomena of upper tangent arc and sunvex Parry arc form. This crown appears in the shape of a U or a V form above the sun. The sunvex Parry arc was first documented by in 1820 by Sir William Edward Parry during a Northwest Passage exploration.
March 2023: a partial Halo and Parhelion forming over the tracks of a Polar bear and an Arctic wolf
Diamond dust also creates “hazy” conditions close to the ground. While this never was a problem at the beginning of this expedition, later during the days when we observed Halo and Parhelia, my cameras fitted with telephoto lenses struggled to focus on objects I wanted to photograph. The visual effects caused by diamond dust haze resemble heat haze encountered in hot and dry landscapes. Just as it is difficult to impossible to photograph any object at a distance during a hot, dry day in the Kalahari, diamond dust days will create a physical barrier between the camera and a subject further than about 10m away.
I seriously reject calling this heat flare!
A word about wide-angle photography
I knew I wouldn’t be able to manage a third large camera body with wide angle lens attached because of my shoulder injury. Adding a Leica Q3 to my equipment for this expedition turned out to be an excellent choice. The Q3 combines its full format 60MP sensor with a fixed aspherical 28mm f/1.7 Summilux lens. In typical Leica manner, this camera is beautifully crafted, super robust, and quite easy to get along with for a Nikon and Canon photographer. Leica managed to integrate a decent animal tracking algorithm. In combination with its articulated screen this would allow me to hold out the camera at a low angle. Most notably: the Q3 is so small that I could carry it inside my Fjällräven Polar Parka with a battery already fitted in the camera. Whenever the need for wide angle arose, I pulled out this little gem, removed its lens cover and was ready.
The photographic results produced by the Leica Q3 are amazing. Its aspherical lens reducing barrel distortion, Leica’s typical natural colours and impressive dynamic range, the sharpness at f/16, and everything captured by a full format 60MP sensor make it a perfect companion for places where a Nikon Z9 with a fast wide-angle lens is too big to handle.
An example of the amazing image quality delivered by the Leica Q3
Any downsides? – Yes, some of the small buttons on the camera and any touchscreen features required me getting out of my gloves to change settings. This, in turn, was instantly punished with freezing cold fingers that swiftly needed to return to their gloves and hand-warmers!
What comes next?
There will be a separate blog about the biology of these Arctic wolves. I was also asked to write about the solitary Arctic hare we got to observe. But the real question is: what's next in terms of Arctic fauna? -
Much to my regret, the closest I have ever come to a Peary caribou (Rangifer tarandus pearyi) is reflected in a photograph I made in 2023 at the northern shore of Vendom Fiord, on Ellesmere Island:
March 2023: the antlers of a Peary caribou remain in the High-Arctic ice
Yes, this is a species I would very much enjoy to observe and photograph in the Arctic winter. Then there are seasonal visitors such as the gyrfalcon (Falco rusticolus), and the snowy owl (Bubo scandiacus). But these can be found further south. Most importantly, alongside the Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis)! After that, there is the major quest of observing, and in a meaningful way, photographing the world's largest land predator: the Polar bear. Let's see how plans can be put in motion...
Please feel free to contact me for further information about this expedition and anything related to equipment for wildlife and nature photography. As ever, for the good people quoted or mentioned in this blog: if you find wrong or outdated information, please let me know so we can update or change it here.
26.07.2026
Patrick Meier
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